Improved car-coupling



A. McLEAN.

. Car Coupling.

No. 89,061. Patented April 20, 1869.

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ALPINE MoLEAN, OF BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS.

Letters Patent No. 89,061, dated Apr-i120, 1869.

IMPROVED CAR-COUPLING.

The Schedule referred to in these Letters Patent and. making part of the same.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, ALPINE McLnAN, of Boston, in the county of Suffolk, and State of Massachusetts, have invented Improvements in Car-Couplings; and I do hereby declare that the following, taken in connection with the drawings which accompany and form part of this specification, is a description of my invention,suffieicnt to enable those skilled in the art to practise it.

This invention, in common with many others, has for its object the coupling of railway-cars automatically, when two are brought together; and it consists in the details of construction and arrangement of the parts, as described beyond.

Figure 1, of the drawings, shows my improved carcoupling in longitudinal vertical section and elevation;

Figure 2, in end elevation; and

Figure 3 is a partial plan of the parts which operate on the link a.

In my coupling, I make use of the plain link commonly employed, so that when a car, having my improved coupling, is brought adjacent to a car having the old and well-known arrangement of the common coupling, the cars may be coupled together, by inserting the shackle-pin of the common coupling through the end of the link opposite to that held by my improved device.

The need of a self-shaokling coupling is demonstrated in the frequent injuries sustained by persons in the act of guiding the common link into the common coupling-jaws, but any change involving the necessity of changing. the couplings of cars already made, would cause an expense which railroad corporations will not assume, though they will adopt for new cars, a selfshackling coupling, if it can be used with the old couplings, where the old and new are brought together, as must frequently be the ease in making up trains.

The link a is the plain link in common use. It is held by its sides between two spring-jaws c, which are each fixed by one end to the piece (I, which is preferably of wrought-iron, and may be made of suitable shape to receive in its salient end, the devices which operate on the link a, the piece (I being attached by its other end to the car, so as either to push or to pull it. The ends of the spring-jaws o are bent, so as to turn outwards, to facilitate the entrance of the link between them, and the top edges of the jaws are flanged inwards, to keep the link from undue lifting.

The shackle-pin g is pressed down into an aperture in the part b of the piece (I, by a spring, a, of any suitable form and arrangement.

The shackle-pin is made with an incline, f, so that when the link a is thrust against the incline, the shackle-pin is raised, and as the link end slips past the shackle-pin end, the latter is forced down through the former, and the act of coupling is completed.

To uncouple the link from the shackle-pin, the latter is raised by a pull upon a chain connected by one end with the pin, and by the other with the car end or platform. e

To hold the link horizontally and in line with an approaching coupling, and to relieve the flanges on the upper inner edges of the spring-jaws 0, I place around the shackle-pin g a follower-piece, i, which is kept pressed downward by a spring, j, on the rear end of the link a The spring j is attached to the follower, so that when the shackle-pin g is lifted, the upper part of the incline f, striking against the lower coil of the spring j, causes the lifting of the follower, so as to relieve the link from the follower, at the same time the end of the shackle-pin is cleared from the link.

I claim a car-coupling, having a draught-bar, (Z, in which there is a shackle-pin, g, operated by a spring, as described, arranged with the incline f, and provided with the spring-followe" i, and the spring-jaws 0, substantially as described.

A. MGLEAN.

Witnesses:

J. B. CROSBY, FRANCIS GOULD. 

